A member of Congress has suggested that the White Cliffs of Dover tumbling into the English Channel was causing rising sea levels.

Related: Everglades under threat as Florida's mangroves face death by rising sea level

Republican Mo Brooks of Alabama pushed back at the notion that rising sea levels were the result of global warming in a hearing of the House Science, Space and Technology on Wednesday.

Instead, Brooks pointed to silt deposition as well as erosion as a cause of rising sea levels. Questioning scientist Phil Duffy of the Woods Hole Research Center, Brooks postulated that silt and mud washed by rivers into the ocean caused water levels to rise as it settled on the sea floor. “Now you have got less space in those oceans because the bottom is moving up,” he said.

And many people in his district are nodding their heads in agreement right now.